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Senator BEALL. Next, we will have a panel of local Government officials consisting of Mrs. Helen S. Ward, who is the commissionerelect from Somerset County, and who has been an active volunteer in the MAC project; the Honorable Philip D'Adamo, of the board of commissioners of Dorchester County and member of the MAC Board, the Honorable Lewis Riley, president of the Wicomico county council, and the Honorable Willis Hudson, of the Board of Commissioners of Worcester County.

We are happy that you would take the time out of your busy day and be with us and to give us the benefit of your thinking on these programs. You bear a great deal of responsibility I have often said I don't ever envy local government officials their responsibility. It is very easy to look at these problems from a distance in Washington and try to figure out a solution. But you are dealing with them on a day-to-day basis. Local governments have a great responsibility, and those who are willing to serve on this level merit the thanks of their fellow citizens and those of us who also have the pleasure of serving in Government.

We are happy to have you with us today, and thank you for taking the time.

You may proceed in any order that you choose.

STATEMENT OF HON. HELEN S. WARD, COMMISSIONER-ELECT, SOMERSET COUNTY; HON. PHILIP G. D'ADAMO, BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS, DORCHESTER COUNTY; HON. LEWIS R. RILEY, PRESIDENT, WICOMICO COUNTY COUNCIL; HON. WILLIS W. HUDSON, COUNTY COMMISSIONER, WORCESTER COUNTY, A PANEL

Mrs. WARD. Senator Beall, as commissioner-elect, it is very bad, I think, to admit that you do not know any of what really is expected of local government to take part in this MAC program.

I was so in hopes that the commissioner would be here from Somerset, so I really have no comment to make on local government involvement, since I know nothing at all about it, but as you say, as a MAC volunteer, I certainly hope this project is high on the priorities of Federal funding.

Thank you.

Mr. D'ADAMO. The problem, Senator, that worries us in Dorchester County is a problem that I am sure my colleagues on my right here experience, and that is the way of all Federal funding, which is that it starts out beautifully and then all of a sudden begins to erode, and the first thing you know, the County's holding the bag with the decision of either continuing the funding or else dropping the program We in Dorchester County, at least morally support this MAC program, or the program on the elderly. We have our own Commission on the Aging that we fund, very meekly, but we do fund it, and we have just organized a Human Resources Commission, which actually is federally funded for a year. Now, what happens after the year, we don't know. We will either have to, there again, foot the bill or else. drop the whole thing

The Human Resources Commission is devoted to human resources, and that includes the elderly as well as the young, or any age bracket. In Dorchester County, I might say that our meals-I noticed here

a little earlier that they said that the meals cost $1.20, I believe, on the average. We get our meals from the State hospital center for 60 cents. Maybe once they hear that $1.20 is being charged elsewhere, they may go up on their rates, too.

But, as a Commissioner in Dorchester County, and I speak for my colleagues as well, we are extremely happy and proud, and feel very warmly toward the Commission on the Aging. We believe that it is a concern of not only our county, but all counties, and we support it and will support it in any way we can.

You were talking a little bit earlier about the tremendous amount of paperwork involved. I might add that I would like to see some of that paperwork reduced, but also some of the language in English, because some of the time we can't understand what it's all about anyway.

But as far as our program in Dorchester, we support it and we urge its continuation, because if we have to foot the bill, total bill, I don't know whether our county could afford to even go half or one-third of the program.

So I sincerely hope that our Government will continue to be concerned with the aged, and not relegate it at the foot of the local government, because local government is having its problems, as you know, with funding a lot of other programs, and the entire concept may suffer because local government just cannot support the entire program. Senator BEALL. Thank you, Mr. D'Adamo.

Mr. Hudson?

Mr. HUDSON. I would like to commend you, too, for the work you have done. This is one of the few dreams I have ever known come from Washington down to the people, and this to me is a great benefit. Also I would like to thank you and compliment you for keeping up the Agency.

We in Worcester County wholeheartedly endorse the program, and I don't believe there is any better program that has come out of Washington than the one for the aged.

To me, the centers and the satellite centers-the people there are enthusiastic workers. I don't believe there is any more benefit done for any tax dollar.

And then the first thing that happens usually is the centers say: "Are we going to continue this? What will happen when the Federal payment stops?"

Well, I say this: have faith. Uncle Sam comes through and so now, Senator, I am putting you on the spot on that, too. You see, when it comes budget time, we all have the same problem and you are familiar with it, Senator, that we always try our best to keep our tax dollars low as we can, and in this economic squeeze, we think that maybe Uncle Sam has a few more tax dollars than we have in local government.

But we wish to thank you very much, and we will continue the program as best we can, because it does so much for so many people, and I wish to emphasize, as so many have said so many times todaytransportation.

We in the rural counties have to take one bus and probably sit 4 or 5 hours waiting at a doctor's office to get a person back home. We need some more transportation. This is one of our main considerations.

Thank you, Senator.

Senator BEALL. Mr. Riley?

Mr. RILEY. Thank you, Senator. I feel on behalf of the citizens of Wicomico County that I want to thank you for taking your time in hearing our comments concerning this program.

We as a governing body are very much interested in the plight of the elderly, and we have initiated some programs, as you are well aware, but we are limited, as Mr. Hudson has pointed out, to what we can do on local levels, simply because we do not have the revenue resources that we like to think the Federal Government has.

The initiation of the MAC program came before the county council approximately a year or so ago, and received the blessings of the council. I will be the first to admit that over the period of operation, of maybe the first six months or so, there were some problems.

The county government worked with the leadership of the MAC program; we held meetings, we discussed the various criticisms that had been offered to us, from different areas of the community, and I am certainly happy to say that I think these wrinkles were ironed

out.

Now, this brings us to the disturbing point, as I understand; one of the purposes of today's hearings, that the funding may very well be diminishing, and we feel somewhat disturbed at the fact that we feel we have a working program, the wrinkles have just been ironed out, and then it stops.

I would like to think that we would do just the opposite, once we get the wrinkles ironed out, which we feel we have now-that the funding would continue.

One other area that has not been mentioned-well, let me backtrack for just a moment. It was related to the fact of cooperation, and I am the first to realize that you can not legislate cooperation between various organizations, whether they be local organizations, or government organizations, but one of the things that the county council of Wicomico County insisted upon in the initiation of this program was that there be input from all areas concerning the elderly.

We did this. We appointed a board of directors that consisted of membership in the AARP, membership in the local county recreation commission, which has a program for the elderly of its own, and I think this has been one of the benefits; I think it helps everyone realize what they are doing, you know.

Sometimes there is a misconception about what the program does, and I think it may have gotten off the ground in the beginning, thinking it was a giveaway program, where actually it was a necessity, a need.

One area that has not been touched upon, and I may be completely off base, and if I am, sir. I hope you will stop me, but that is certainly the plight of the elderly and certainly something that Wicomico County has investigated a number of times-housing.

Nowhere in this program have I seen any proposals as to what may or may not be done as to housing for the elderly. We happen to be fortunate enough to have one facility in the county that was approved by the county council and is operated by the housing authority, of 50 units of housing for the elderly.

The county council has adopted resolutions time and time again in making application for housing for the elderly, the last being in

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May of 1971, when we adopted a resolution granting approval to the local housing authority to construct additional housing for the elderly, and the unfortunate part about this was that at the same time we were granted permission to construct housing for the lowincome, but the elderly were turned around.

They said there was no funding available. Well, my question—as a local official it disturbs me, and the point I want to make here that disturbs me is the fact that we all agree that it is a very unfortunate situation in this day and time to be in a low-income bracket, but it is much more unfortunate to be low-income and elderly all at the same time. And I would certainly hope that if anything can be proposed in new legislation-as I read your news release, I gathered that there were going to be some amendments, at least suggested amendments, and if there is any area that an amendment can be included to provide some freedom for funding for the elderly, I think this is a necessity. It surely is in this area, and I would suspect it is nationwide. Senator BEALL. Yes, funding for housing is a national problem and the availability of housing money is directly related to our economic problems. The downturn in the housing industry, as a matter of fact, has affected our whole national economy.

But with specific regard to title III of this act, one of the items included under social services is the service designed to assist older persons to obtain adequate housing. One of the purposes of the act is to provide the administrative framework within which older people can be assisted in locating adequate housing.

Now, the actual construction of new housing, is the responsibility of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. As you know-housing funds were frozen for the last year and a half while we designed a new act.

The act has now passed the Congress, and among other things it reinstates Government loans for providing housing for the elderly. This money will be available immediately.

Additionally, under the new Housing Act, there is a great deal more flexibility given to local bodies to determine how they want their community development funds used. I think you are going to find that, as we go into the new year, that these funds will be freed up so that the kind of things you want to do at Pine Bluff can now be done.

Mr. RILEY. That is certainly very encouraging news, sir, and I thank you for that information. The city of Salisbury as well as the county council have initiated joint efforts to research this and see what can be done.

Back to the MAC program, I would on behalf of the council urge continuous funding, and I think as to the administration of the program, you have heard people today who are actually involved in the day-to-day process who are certainly much more knowledgeable on the weak points and the strong points of the program than I would be as an advisory council member.

In concluding my statement, I would urge continuance of it and hope that the new act and amendments will be beneficial to us all. Thank you very much.

Senator BEALL. Thank you all for your testimony.

As I said at the outset, I have a great deal of sympathy for the position in which local government officials are often placed by the

Federal Government. The Federal Government holds out a very delicious looking apple and local governments take a big bite out of it. Once you have learned to like the apple, you find that you have to provide the whole bushel of apples yourself; it's only the sample that we are giving you, and I recognize the predicament this presents to you.

I am wondering, has revenue sharing provided the kind of assistance that gives you additional flexibility to continue programs of this sort? I am not suggesting that revenue sharing should be something that is devoted to finance this particular program. Does this concept lend itself to helping you to solve such predicaments?

Mr. D'ADAMO. Senator, revenue sharing, I understand now, is in trouble, too. In our county, frankly, if the revenue sharing were cut away, would find itself in a bind.

We have appreciated revenue sharing a whole lot, and if it is cut we are going to suffer. And as far as helping, yes, it has been a tremendous help in all areas in our county; we appreciate it.

Mr. HUDSON. I wouldn't in fact like to see this replace revenue sharing, and I want to make that clear, because we also have already got it spent, now.

So now, to keep on the subject we're talking about, but I want to reiterate, too, that the dollars spent on the aging from our title III funds reach so many people, and the benefits received for so little tax burden

Mr. RILEY. I think there is a wide opportunity for revenue funds to be used, as these gentlemen emphasize. We now have what we have received in the committee, and certainly it is an avenue for local officials to take a strong look at it.

Senator BEALL. Well, I happen to be one who believes in the revenuesharing concept. I think that we are forcing a tremendous burden on property owners of all ages, by causing local governments to rely on the real property tax as their main source of revenue. I think we have some responsibility at the Federal level to provide as broad a tax base as we can and at the same time preserve for you a degree of flexibility that I think you need in administering and selecting your programs. So I am hoping that revenue sharing will not only be continued, but expanded.

Thank you very much for your testimony and your time.

Now, our final panel is a group of senior citizens, who will give us some insight into how they feel about this program from the viewpoint of the beneficiaries. I would ask that this panel come up as their names are called.

Lorenzo Marshall, of Salisbury; Bessie Miles, of Salisbury; Ella Dedmond, Princess Anne; Irene Holland, Fairmount; Lenora Robins, Snow Hill. We have had the pleasure of meeting Mrs. Robins before. She was in Baltimore for a hearing we held last April.

Myrtle Bowen, Snow Hill; Viola McClain, of Cambridge; Viola Comegys, of Cambridge; Inez Abbott, of Church Creek and John B. Griffin, of Salisbury.

Now, the purpose of this Panel is to get the feelings of some of the beneficiaries of the services provided by the MAC project. I would also hope that we might receive any suggestions you have as to changes you might want to see made in the program. You can each speak briefly in your own words, and in your own order.

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